Week 6

Last week was week 6 of my Chicago Marathon training.  It was also the final training week for the Capitol Mile!  I always like the 6 week point, because that is when everything starts feeling like it is coming together and I start feeling pretty fit.  This season is no exception. Because it was a race week, my coach took it pretty easy on me.  Here are how things shook out:

Monday is my rest day, so I took advantage of a little extra sleep.

Tuesday was supposed to be our last track workout before the mile race.  Unfortunately it was cancelled midday due to the extreme heat.  I really wanted to get some workout in for the day, but was dreading the idea of the treadmill.  It was super hot when I got home from work (93ish around 6:30 pm).  After procrastinating a bit, I headed out for a 40 minute run anyway.  Lucky for me, it started raining!  Wow, what a difference some rain makes.  It felt so good I stretched my run out to 64 minutes and got in 7.4 miles (8:59 pace).

Wednesday morning, the boys and I got up bright and early (5:00 am) to meet my friend Michelle to do our last track workout.  Unfortunately it was pouring and storming, so the boys naturally did not want to get out there.  Michelle and I did our warm up in some light (but moving away thunder), then James joined us for our last workout (Jake threw in the towel).  We did drills and pickups; then 600m; 2 x 400m; 3 x 300m; 4 x 100m.  It was actually pretty fun doing these in the rain.  Logged just a hair over 5 miles total.

Thursday morning it was warm and 94% humidity even at 5:30 am.  I logged 5 easy miles (8:59 pace).

Friday was an easy Fartlek: 8x1 min @ 5k pace; 2 minutes easy.  I had 4 strides on the agenda too, but during the 3rd one my left hip flexor screamed at me, so I took it in easy.  Ended up with 5 miles at 8:20 average pace.  Friday night, my father-in-law came into town and he hung out with the boys while John and I went on a super easy (read slow) bike ride.

Saturday I only had 20 minutes on the agenda!!  Crazy.  I did some gardening in the morning and accidentally threw my prescription running sunglasses ($$$) into the woods with all the weeds I pulled.  Yikes!!  I searched for them for 40 minutes to no avail; ran for 22 minutes (2.7 miles w/4 strides); then thankfully found them when I searched a second time.  Whew!

Sunday was the Capitol Mile.  I decided to jump into the elite race, which had been combined with the men (seeded 5:00).  There were only 5 women and I was very afraid I'd come in last.  But I didn't and I had a solid race!  6:09.  This was ultimately good for 4th overall and 1st in my age group.  Race report coming soon.

Total: 28.6 miles running
           12.5 miles cycling

Now it is back to ramping up the miles and the marathon focus (well, almost - more on that too later)!